Cambridge Mosque

The New Mosque in Cambridge is the first ‘Eco-Mosque’ in Europe.

The site includes a 1,000 capacity prayer hall, community kitchen and café, teaching rooms, two residential units and an underground car park. The building is surrounded by a cypress tree garden, providing an oasis within the immediate urban environment.

The design intent is that environmental and energy concepts for the building and its integrated services should achieve low carbon emissions and none are to be produced on site.

The building form and fabric specification ensure it can be naturally lit during daylight hours and naturally ventilated throughout the year - even during periods of peak occupancy. The striking timber construction means that embodied energy is very low.

Air source heat pumps are used for underfloor heating / cooling which also includes an innovative system of direct hot water heating via buffer tanks. Given that the grid electricity becomes increasingly less carbon intensive, the overall footprint will reduce year on year.

The building is part powered by a PV array and rainwater is harvested for flushing WCs and irrigation. The power produced by the PVs is sufficient to cover all of the hot water used in the building, all of the cooling and 13% of the heating.